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Europe's largest low cost airline, Ryanair, will enter the Bosnian market this year by introducing flights to Banja Luka. It comes following protracted talks with the government of the Entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The carrier will introduce two weekly services from Charleroi Airport in Belgium, each Monday and Friday, starting October 29, as well as from Memmingen in Germany from October 30, each Tuesday and Saturday. The Prime Minister of the entity, Željka Cvijanović, has said that "several additional destinations will also be launched" by the airline in the coming period. Tickets for the new routes are already available for purchase through the carrier's website.
Commenting on the new route, Ryanair’s Sales and Marketing Executive for Belgium, Helene Begasse, said, “We are pleased to announce a new Brussels Charleroi to Banja Luka route commencing this November. This new route marks Ryanair's entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and wi…

The world's largest carrier, American Airlines, is considering introducing seasonal flights to Dubrovnik. According to the "TangoSix" portal, the company is in talks with the airport over a seasonal service from Philadelphia. A decision on the matter is expected within the next month. American operates a number of seasonal flights to Europe from its Philadelphia hub including Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Lisbon, Prague, Shannon and Venice. This year, the airline expanded its reach from Philadelphia into Europe with seasonal flights to Budapest and Prague. Both are operated by its Boeing 767-300 aircraft. The move is seen as affirming American’s commitment to Philadelphia as a trans-Atlantic gateway.
Dubrovnik Airport has identified the United States and South Korea as two far-away markets which could sustain services to the coastal city. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Dubrovnik Airport's General Manager, Frano Luetić, said, "These two far-…

EX-YU airlines handle 6.5 million passengers in 2017

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The national carriers from the former Yugoslavia handled over 6.5 million passengers in 2017, representing an increase of 5.2% on the year before. Both Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways saw their passenger numbers grow, while Montenegro Airlines' figures declined slightly. The Serbian national carrier welcomed roughly the same number of travellers last year to that of 2016.

Air Serbia handled 2.617.000 passengers on board its aircraft in 2017, a decrease of 0.1% compared to the year before. It maintained its position as the busiest national carrier in the former Yugoslavia. Despite discontinuing its daily service to Abu Dhabi and Istanbul during the year, the airline introduced flights to Venice and increased capacity on its narrow-body Airbus fleet by retrofitting its aircraft with slim-line seats across both its economy and business class cabins. As a result, the carrier increased capacity on its Airbus A319s from 128 to 144 seats and on the A320s from 155 to 174 seats, growing by more than 12% in total across the narrow-body fleet. The airline is yet to publish its operational results for 2017 in full.

EX-YU national airlines, passengers carried in 2017

Airline

PAX (million)

Change (%)

Air Serbia

2.6

▼ 0.1

Croatia Airlines

2.1

▲ 9.6

Adria Airways

1.2

▲ 9.6

Montenegro Airlines

0.568

▼ 2.2

Croatia Airlines handled a record 2.130.000 million passengers during 2017, an increase of 9.6%. As a result, it added an extra 190.000 travellers and marks the first time the carrier welcomed over two million passengers on board its aircraft in a single year. The company operated 27.491 flights during 2017, which is up 2.4% compared to the year before. The average cabin load factor, a measure of seat capacity utilisation, stood at a record 74.4%, up 4.4%. Passenger carrying capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs), amounted to 2.2 billion, up 4.8% year-on-year. The airline’s cargo operations recorded a decline of 12.3%, with 2.273 tonnes of mail and freight uplifted in 2017, compared to 2.591 the year before. In 2017, Croatia Airlines launched flights to four new destinations and extended operations on some of its seasonal destinations past the summer months.

Adria Airways saw 1.209.692 passengers board its aircraft in 2017, up 9.6% on the year before. The Slovenian carrier operated a total 20.415 flights, an increase of 4.9%, while its average cabin load factor stood at 66.9%, up 1.4%. Of the 1.2 million travellers handled, the airline carried 177.166 passengers to and from its second base in Pristina, which is similar to 2016's figure. Adria retained its position as the fourth busiest airline in the city. Its network-wide passenger growth came as result of the introduction of additional frequencies on existing services and the launch of flights between Ljubljana and Kiev, which made up for the closure of its base in Lodz in Poland.

Montenegro Airlines handled 568.591 passengers in 2017, representing a decrease of 2.2% on the year before. The dip in numbers is slightly less than the 5% decline the carrier initially anticipated. The airline maintained operations with five aircraft compared to six in 2016 and operated a total of 6.959 flights. "In addition to achieving these results with a fleet of five aircraft, the figures are even more encouraging after taking into account the growing competition on the market. In January 2017 there were twelve airlines operating to Montenegro and up to 54 in July", Montenegro Airlines said in a statement. Over the coming peak summer months, from June until the end September, Montenegro Airlines plans to handle some 360.000 travellers this year, while it is targeting 620.000 passengers in 2018 overall.

It can only impact it negatively. They advertise cheap fares and then when people go to book those fares they see they don't exist. What they see is the same fares as before with no additional service.

their new buisness model has, going through feedback on social media, so far left its customers (and potential customers) with negative experiences.

Air Serbia has, unfortunately not followed up on many customer feedback and frustrations (ie mishandled baggage, customer care in BEG, fare structure) while downgrading its onboard product (removal of onboard amenities, removal of a dedicated business class) and service (catering, frequencies, destinations).

My concern is that this may negatively impact on pax numbers from BEG, yield through increased competition, as well as not using their fleet to their maximum potential.

@ anonymous 10,16am

While JU have decreased flights, they did increase capacity through their cabin recomfiguration. JU has been for the past 4 years trying to boost their CLF, which although has happened steadily, although prior to them reconfiguring the A319/A320 fleet. Their A320 doesnt see much action during most of the year which is of concern, as they have 10 A320neos expecting to enter the fleet, which I assume will be to replace the narrobodied Airbus fleet.

If anything, I would assume the ‘better’ results would stem more from their decrease in employees as well as the introduction of more ancillary fees.

@ anonymous 10,45am

I dont think much will come from 2019 due to the fact that their 2016 financial results were horrid, regardless of how they put it. JU is in desperiation to change that going by the radical changes its making, the over capacity of employees, while losing current and potential market to its competitors, on top of a fleet that obviously is not working well for them. JU so far fails to show its understanding of the Serbian market as well as its potential.

I think it will be difficult for OU to overtake JU this year. Not because in the long term the airline has the potential to do it but because of the fact that there is no capacity increase this year compared to last year.

OU will not become bussiest ex-Yu airline anytime soon.The difference with JU is too big and OU has no capacity to add 0,5 million passengers. The difference between JU and OU is expected to remain the same in next years

That might happen this year already if OU makes double digit growth and JU have double digit decline. They would be close. But not likely to happen already in 2018, and afterall it is not a competition. We want all to grow. :)

But this year JU decline will be higher than last year, because last year cutting in frequencies was compensate with more seats in planes. But this year it is just cutting of flights with no compensation.

no abu dhabi, no ohrid one less 737 for charters (can somebody confirm this?), AZ and AB dead, so less codeshares, less synergies, new fare structure demanding you to pay more for the same service last year...

Last time I checked AZ has not been dead and JU code share with them is still very alive.Ohrid is too small to have any impact on JU total numbers but it should be mentioned that JU increased ZRH for 3 weekly flights,LED for 1 weekly flight, JFK for 1 weekly flight, MXP for 1 weekly flight and ATH for 1 weekly flight.The reductions apart from AUH have been mostly done on ATR72 flights (SKP, SOF, OHD). PRG has been reduced from 10 to 7 weekly flights but capacacity has been actually increased as on some days A319 has been added instead of ATR72.Not that bad actually.

JU's transformation to a hybrid low cost carrier will allow them to reduce rates and be more competitive = more passengers. Reducing the fleet doesn't necessarily mean immediate lower number of passengers.

I'm not so optimistic about Adria this year. Yes they have added a lot of new routes but they are cancelling many flights already and they just started. They are also driving away a lot of passengers with their disorganisation, cancellations, delays, wetleasing of archaic aircraft etc.

It is really sad that all mentioned companies are still alive only due to illegal support (one way or another) of their governments. Nobody pays full amount of fees (very often nothing at all) to local airports.

What's illegal? Governments in ex-Yu are not doing anything differently than many other airlines in Europe when it comes to their airlines. Just how much has the Italian government invested in Alitalia in the last year.

@anon 9:59. What's up with this sudden fascination with BWK? It is a small island airport and very seasonal. If they increase numbers around 10%, it will be great success. Not to mention LSZ which starts with regular traffic this summer. Too many airports imho. Mark my words, BWK will be worst performer for JP this year

Well, todays number for HAM and GVA are not bad at all, if 70 n 51 mean one way. Which AC did they use on these 2 routes? Do you maybe have numbers for the return flight as well? Does anyone know why LJU-SOF-LJU was cancelled? Shortage of AC or no pax?

All this micrmicairlineso ex yu mumbo jumbo airlines managed to transport combined population of Serbia and Montenegro in a whole year :-P ! That is so so sad, this kind of articles are always healthy to read as a reality check of how small ex yu aviaton market really is...

Easy flies to Croatia, 7 months a year, unless they add Zagreb soon for year round.

They handled 1 million cause they have over 20 daily flights to Split and Dubrovnik throughout the season and Zadar and Pula also get daily or double daily flights.

There are pictures somewhere, you can see line up of EasyJet aircraft @Split Airport, at least 4-5 Easy aircraft parked there at one time.

Croatia had 18.5 million tourists last year, 20,5 million expected this year. I am only surprised they didn't handle even more pax, 1 million seems little if you ask me. Also, OU has fleet of only 12 aircraft, Easy has a fleet of at least 150.

They utilise the plane on average 4 times a week. It might be full on many days but it is mostly economy and cheap fares. That means it is probably not making money. See the airline class economics explained:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzB5xtGGsTc

And just a few comments down you have someone complaining how the fares are expensive. And on top of that their C class sales are strong. I have been following their loads on this flight for around a month now and on avarage they have 13 out of 18 passengers in C class. Often it is sold out too.

Still their business class is small and they are taking very few people. On average 4 flights x2x13 is just around 100 one way business passengers per week. That is not enough even to cover the cost of plane lease.

I don't understand why it takes months to publish pax numbers for the past year. I'm pretty sure they knew how many tickets they've sold by 10th January and they should know on daily basis how many pax they are actually carrying.

Anyone noticed JU downgraded their baggage policy forgetf? JFK is now 1pc of checked baggage in economy, instead of 2pc they had since the introduction of the route. Done very queitly with no big announcement on the website.What a way to play yourself out of competitive advantage...

I'm not saying they are below the average carrier, but that they have solentlu downgraded their policy and lost competitive advantage. Serious cost cutting, even on the "prestige" route to JFK. A shame, really.

What are you talking about?neither TK nor Gulf carriers have 2 pc policy.Sure, you can take 2 pcs but you must pay for the second one.Furthermore, whenever EK does PR with some offers, this 1 pc which comes free is not even 23 kg but 20kg.

Depends on the length of your travel and destination. Two pieces of luggage are often very needed and you might end up paying 120 eur for rt. 40kg is also needed when you are moving somewhere for a couple of months and need to bring clothes and other stuff for different seasons. Been there, done that :)

The world is changing. The use of havy bags is getting lower because the same stuff you need is sold in the other countries. A traveller no longer needs metal cutlery or free wine but rather to reach to point to point B with less luggage, possubly Wi-fi and punctuality.

Does anyone know how is JP doing on LJU-CDG route? I flu lju-cdg on friday morning, operated by crj 90, 40pax, flying back now (flight delayed for 1h), operated by fokker100, less than 40pax? Is this route profitable at all- having in mind it was easter sp i would expect high LF? Even ticket prices dropped significantky. JP used to charge between 300-500 for return ticket, recently (after AF boosted this route) u can find tickets for 200€ return.

Yes, HV increased flights to 5 weekly and HOP will deploy the bigger 100 seat E190.JP will have no choice to deploy at least CR9 to be more competitive and so the rates will fall and more passengers will fly to/from CDG.

Just landed at LJU. GS guy told me that the last information he got is that JP wont get any of those saabs parked,because they r waiting to transfer them to the turkish buyer (owner). JP is currently leasing two AC from Carpatair and one from Tradeair. Passengers supposedly (GS guys comment) complain a lot n even the airport isnt satisfied with JPs situation

As I've seen, JU started shuttling pax. from BEG to ZAG via LJU connecting both flights into one. Flying on BEG ZAG route quite frequently, I've never seen aircraft reaching 70% pax load. Couple months age, I flew on the 'new' route, and there were around 100 passengers on board YU-APA. Most of them got off in Ljubljana.They've done same thing with SJJ/BNX and TGD/TIV. Maybe they should reduce flights form BEG and ZAG/LJU to one daily every five days and toss in A319 and continue with the new route. It seems to be paying off better than sending couple of half-empty flying shells to both cities in the same time.

Exactly. Maybe they should choose that option permanently. I had also flown to Belgrade from Zagreb as a connection, and boy was that bird empty. Half of the aircraft was speaking Arabic.Tho, I think TIV and TGD should give better results among Montenegrin/Serbian population traveling between two countries.

Thing is, connecting flights are slowly losing ground as time goes by, especially in Europe. More and more cities are connected to each other and people would always choose the non-stop option if available.LCC long-haul is also entering a new era, we see more DY flights from/to Europe and Americas + SE Asia.The A321LR will be a game changer and new PER-LHR too where people will start avoiding DXB/DOH/AUH and prefer non-stop.Aviation is changing a lot lately, lets see what will happen. I won't be surprised to see new long-haul A321LR or B787 connections to the Balkans soon.

Connecting flights will always be popular for those who are not flexible with their travelling dates. Wizz Air might be linking the region with the West but there are just a few destinations with more than 4 weekly flights.

As for Norwegian, their financial results are catastrophic so let's see how long before they implode.

well I for one do not prefer 17 hours non-stop in an airplane, and i know i am not the only one.so, ultra long haul may be something new, but its an addition to already existing option, rather than a game changer or whatever

I can agree with you on that. ULH flights can be rather exhausting, tho Qantas said they've adopted the dreamliner to help passengers feel better during the flight. The most i can/would go through is 14 hours tops.

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